Department of Functional Imaging in Surgical Oncology
The Department for Functional Imaging in Surgical Oncology develops high-precision imaging methods for cancer surgery, using short-wave infrared light, fluorescent dyes and cutting-edge detection technologies.
With the new method, it could be possible in future to detect individual cancer cells on tumor margins and in lymph nodes during an operation. In addition, the method offers the potential to simultaneously visualize certain structures - such as the tumor, surrounding healthy tissue, and draining lymphatic vessels - in real-time during surgery.
Contact

Prof. Dr. Oliver Bruns
Head of Department
Functional Imaging in Surgical Oncology
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 3386
E-Mail: oliver.bruns(at)nct-dresden.de
Group picture
Our aims
- We develop near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave-infared (SWIR) imaging to provide solutions for guiding decision-making in surgical oncology.
- We develop contrast agents for NIR and SWIR fluorescence-guided surgery, targeting identification of residual cancer and risk structures such as nerves.
- We develop label-free imaging methods for identifying lymph nodes, fat, and other tissue components.
- We perform basic research on NIR and SWIR imaging and microscopy, focusing on methods to improve sensitivity, imaging speed and depth of detection.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Bruns
Head of Department
Email: oliver.bruns(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 3386
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.120

Maria Voigt
Assistant
Email: maria.voigt(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 5587
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.121

Dr.-Ing. Andriy Chmyrov
Senior Research Scientist,
Deputy Head of Department
Email: andriy.chmyrov(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55078
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.118
Research Topic: Development of optical imaging techniques (microscopy, mesoscopy) with extended penetration depth in biological tissues

Giuseppe Balsamo
Scientific and administrative coordination labs
Email: giuseppe.balsamo(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 17892
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.116

Bernardo Arús
Ph. D. student
Email: bernardo.arus(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55077
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.118
Research Topic: Biomedical applications of mesoscopic optical methods

Dr. Merle Weitzenberg
Research Scientist
Email: merle.weitzenberg(at)nct-dresden.de
Research Topic: Synthesis and Validation of Targeted Contrast Agents for Fluorescence Guided Surgery

Caroline Berrou
Shared Ph. D. student with Prof. Dr. Oliver Plettenburg
Email: caroline.berrou(at)nct-dresden.de
Research Topic: Development and Characterization of Short Wave Infrared Fluorescent Probes Targeting Cholesteatoma

Simon Härtl
Research System Engineer
Email: simon.haertl(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55079
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.115

Georg Hartl
Ph. D. student and Scientist in the field of (Bio-)Physics
Email: georg.hartl(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55079
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.115

Metar Heller-Algazi
Ph. D. student and Scientist in the field of (Bio-)Physics
Email: metar.heller-algazi(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55084
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.116

Dr. Iuliia Mukha
Guest scientist
Email: iuliia.mukha(at)nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55080
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.116

Dr. med. Julia Barthel
Medical doctor and research associate
E-Mail: julia.barthel@nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 18271
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.116

Kalina Bamberger
Ph. D. student and research associate
E-Mail: kalina.bamberger@nct-dresden.de
Phone: +49 (0)351 458 55080
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.116

Julia Correa Remus
Research associate
E-Mail: julia.correaremus@nct-dresden.de
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.116

Joshma Rasabathina
student assistant
E-Mail: joshma.rasabathina@nct-dresden.de
Building/Room Number: H 136/3.119
Tjadina Klein
Ph. D. student
Email: tjadina-wencke.klein(at)nct-dresden.de
Alumni
- Samuel Adler
- Ilaria Balba
- Thomas Bischof
- Berit Blume
- Nina Buettner
- Emily Cosco
- Asli Ergin
- Gina Fürtjes
- Xhenifer Guza
- Sofia Kieffa
- Jakob Lingg
- Bunyamin Pekdemir
- Shyam Ramakrishnan
- Hannes Rolbieski
- Mara Saccomano
- Katharina Tartler
- Peter Tsrunchev
- Martin Warmer
- Joycelyn Yiu
1. In vivo NIR-II fluorescence imaging for biology and medicine.
Feifei Wang, Yeteng Zhong, Oliver T. Bruns, Yongye Liang, Hongjie Dai
Published: 04 March 2024; Nature Photonics (2024); Link to the article
2. Shortwave infrared polymethine fluorophores matched to excitation lasers enable non-invasive, multicolour in vivo imaging in real time.
Cosco ED, Spearman AL, Ramakrishnan S, Lingg JGP, Saccomano M, Pengshung M, Arús BA, Wong KCY, Glasl S, Ntziachristos V, Warmer M, McLaughlin RR, Bruns OT*, Sletten EM*. Nat Chem. 2020 Dec;12(12):1123-1130. doi: 10.1038/s41557-020-00554-5. Epub 2020 Oct 19. PMID: 33077925 DOI: 10.1038/s41557-020-00554-5
3. Targeted multicolor in vivo imaging over 1,000 nm enabled by nonamethine cyanines.
Bandi VG*, Luciano MP*, Saccomano M*, Patel NL, Bischof TS, Lingg JGP, Tsrunchev PT, Nix MN, Ruehle B, Sanders C, Riffle L, Robinson CM, Difilippantonio S, Kalen JD, Resch-Genger U, Ivanic J, Bruns OT*, Schnermann MJ*. Nat Methods. 2022 Mar;19(3):353-358. doi: 10.1038/s41592-022-01394-6. Epub 2022 Feb 28. PMID: 35228725 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-022-01394-6
4. Next-generation in vivo optical imaging with short-wave infrared quantum dots.
Bruns OT*, Bischof TS*, Harris DK, Franke D, Shi Y, Riedemann L, Bartelt A, Jaworski FB, Carr JA, Rowlands CJ, Wilson MWB, Chen O, Wei H, Hwang GW, Montana DM, Coropceanu I, Achorn OB, Kloepper J, Heeren J, So PTC, Fukumura D, Jensen KF, Jain RK, Bawendi MG. Nat Biomed Eng. 2017;1:0056. doi: 10.1038/s41551-017-0056. Epub 2017 Apr 10. PMID: 29119058 DOI: 10.1038/s41551-017-0056
5. Bright Chromenylium Polymethine Dyes Enable Fast, Four-Color In Vivo Imaging with Shortwave Infrared Detection.
Cosco ED, Arús BA, Spearman AL, Atallah TL, Lim I, Leland OS, Caram JR, Bischof TS, Bruns OT*, Sletten EM*. J Am Chem Soc. 2021 May 12;143(18):6836-6846. doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c11599. Epub 2021 May 3. PMID: 33939921 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c11599
6. High-Resolution Multicolor Shortwave Infrared Dynamic In Vivo Imaging with Chromenylium Nonamethine Dyes.
Anthony L. Spearman, Eric Y. Lin, Emily B. Mobley, Andriy Chmyrov, Bernardo A. Arús, Daniel W. Turner, Cesar A. Garcia, Kyle Bui, Christopher Rowlands, Oliver T. Bruns, Ellen M. Sletten. J Am Chem Soc. 2025. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5c03673
7. Shortwave-Infrared Line-Scan Confocal Microscope for Deep Tissue Imaging in Intact Organs.
Jakob G. P. Lingg, Thomas S. Bischof, Bernardo A. Arús, Emily D. Cosco, Ellen M. Sletten, Christopher J. Rowlands, Oliver T. Bruns, Andriy Chmyrov. Laser & Photonics Reviews. 2023. DOI: 10.1002/lpor.202300292
8. Development of a shortwave infrared sinuscope for the detection of cerebrospinal fluid leaks.
Klein TW, Yang S, Tusty MA, Nayak JV, Chang MT, Bruns OT*, Bischof TS*, Valdez TA*. J Biomed Opt. 2023 Sep;28(9):094803. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.28.9.094803. Epub 2023 May 12. PMID: 37188003 DOI: 10.1117/1.JBO.28.9.094803
9. Shortwave infrared fluorescence imaging of peripheral organs in awake and freely moving mice.
Arús BA, Cosco ED, Yiu J, Balba I, Bischof TS, Sletten EM, Bruns OT.
Front Neurosci. 2023 May 18;17:1135494. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1135494. eCollection 2023.
PMID: 37274204 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1135494
10. Preventing cation intermixing enables 50% quantum yield in sub-15 nm short-wave infrared-emitting rare-earth based core-shell nanocrystals.
Arteaga Cardona F, Jain N, Popescu R, Busko D, Madirov E, Arús BA, Gerthsen D, De Backer A, Bals S, Bruns OT, Chmyrov A*, Van Aert S*, Richards BS*, Hudry D*. Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 25;14(1):4462. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40031-4. PMID: 37491427 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40031-4
11. Dramatic Impact of Materials Combinations on the Chemical Organization of Core–Shell Nanocrystals: Boosting the Tm3+ Emission above 1600 nm.
Fernando Arteaga Cardona, Eduard Madirov, Radian Popescu, Di Wang, Dmitry Busko, Dominique Ectors, Christian Kübel, Yolita M. Eggeler, Bernardo A. Arús, Andriy Chmyrov, Oliver T. Bruns, Bryce S. Richards*, Damien Hudry* Published: 12 September 2024; ACS Nano (2024); Link to the article
12. Intraoperative microscopic autofluorescence detection and characterization in brain tumors using stimulated Raman histology and two-photon fluorescence.
Fürtjes G, Reinecke D, von Spreckelsen N, Meißner A-K, Rueß D, Timmer M, Freudiger C, Ion-Margineanu A, Khalid F, Watrinet K, Mawrin C, Chmyrov A, Goldbrunner R, Bruns OT, Neuschmelting V. Frontiers in Oncology. 2023. DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1146031
13. Absorption by water increases fluorescence image contrast of biological tissue in the shortwave infrared.
Carr JA, Aellen M, Franke D, So PTC, Bruns OT*, Bawendi MG*. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Sep 11;115(37):9080-9085. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1803210115. Epub 2018 Aug 27. PMID: 30150372 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1803210115
Carr JA, Franke D, Caram JR, Perkinson CF, Saif M, Askoxylakis V, Datta M, Fukumura D, Jain RK, Bawendi MG*, Bruns OT*. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Apr 24;115(17):4465-4470. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1718917115. Epub 2018 Apr 6. PMID: 29626132 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1718917115
15. Nanocarrier imaging at single-cell resolution across entire mouse bodies with deep learning.
Luo J, Molbay M, Chen Y, Horvath I, Kadletz K, Kick B, Zhao S, AlMaskari R, Singh I, Ali M, Bhatia HS, Minde DP, Negwer M, Hoeher L, Calandra GM, Groschup B, Su J, Kimna C, Rong Z, Galensowske N, Todorov MI, Jeridi D, Ohn TL, Roth S, Simats A, Singh V, Khalin I, Pan C, Arús BA, Bruns OT, Zeidler R, Liesz A, Protzer U, Plesnila N, Ussar S, Hellal F, Paetzold J, Elsner M, Dietz H, Erturk A. Nature Biotechnology (2025); Link to the article
Selected pre-prints
1. Park RK*, Arús BA*, Lee JY, Weitzenberg MM, Lee MC, Nyaeme MS, Barthel J, Balsamo G, Baik FM, Speirs K, Blume B, Heller-Algazi M, Chmyrov A, Plettenburg O, Megwalu UC, Weitz J, Distler M, Bruns OT*, Valdez TA*. Intraoperative nerve imaging with sodium fluorescein. medRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.08.25321923
2. Arús BA, Yiu J, Lingg JGP, Hofmann A, Fumo AR, Ji H, Jethwa C, Park R K, Henderson J, Mishra K, Mukha I, Stiel AC, Santovito D, Weber C, Reeps C, Rohm M, Bartelt A, Valdez TA, Chmyrov A, Bruns OT. Macroscopic label-free biomedical imaging with shortwave infrared Raman scattering. bioRxiv, 10597863, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.10.597863
3. Xu C*, Liu Y*, Arús BA*, Mishra K*, Luciano M, Bandi V, Kumar A, Guo Z, Bick M, Xu M, Zhang K, Lingg J, Bae J, Kang A, Gerben SR, Bera AK, Vaughan JC, Manton JD, Derivery E, Schnermann MJ, Stiel AC, Bruns OT, Baker D. De novo design of near infrared fluorescent proteins. Research Square, 4652998, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4652998/v1
* means either shared first or shared last authorship
Full publication list available here
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- EKFZ
- Horizon Europe
- Helmholtz Imaging Project
- BMBF - Better View
- SFB1123
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- Stiftung Deutsche Krebshilfe
- Richard und Annemarie Wolf foundation
- National Institute of Health (NIH)
Prof. Dr. Ellen M. Sletten >>
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Dr. Martin J. Schnermann >>
National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Dr. Christopher Rowlands >>
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College, London, UK
Prof. Dr. Tulio A Valdez >>
Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
Prof. Dr. Oliver Plettenburg >>
Institute of Organic Chemistry, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Dr. André C. Stiel >>
Cell Engineering Group, Helmholtz Munich, Germany
Dr. Volker Neuschmelting >>
University Hospital Cologne, Germany
Prof. Dr. Alexander Bartelt >>
Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
Dr. Damien Hudry >>
Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Prof. Dr. Bryce S. Richards >>
Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Dr. rer. nat. Ute Resch-Genger >>
Department of Biophotonics, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, Berlin, Germany
- Perkin Elmer Lambda 1050+, including Three Detectors module and the 150mm Integrating Sphere module
- Home-built photoexcitation/photoluminescence spectrometer based on an NKT SuperK and a Princeton Instruments spectrograph with a Pixis and Pylon. Excitation 400-1600nm, detection 400-1600nm
Are you interested in joining our team? You can find some of the current positions by following the respective link below. But we are always looking for new team members from different backgrounds to join our team. Feel free to approach us about Master thesis projects, PhD projects and Postdoc positions.
For more information or if you like to send an initiative application, please contact Ms. Maria Voigt by email to: maria.voigt(at)nct-dresden.de
Please attach a motivation letter describing why you want to join our group and which specific project you are interested in as well as your CV to your email.
Contribution in the edition 25/01 of Laborjournal
Link to the article with Oliver Bruns: 'Blick mit Infrarotlicht mitten ins Leben - Live Cell Imaging'
(by Mario Rembold)
Full edition of the journal 25/01 with the article can be found here
Helmholtz High Impact Award for Oliver Bruns and Ellen Sletten
Please also see the media reviews for further information:
TU Dresden
Helmholtz Society
Stifterverband
Helmholtz Imaging (Interview)
Press release on funding by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
We once again received renowned funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The link to the detailed press release can be found here.
BDC Surgeon Talk
with Oliver Bruns 'Molekulare Bildgebung - Zukunftmusik oder schon Realität?' (German only)

This and other podcasts can be found here (link to external page).
Introducing Oliver Bruns. TU Dresden
Prof. Oliver Bruns - University-Wide Inaugural Lecture
FBOO @ WMIC Prague
FBOO @ chemTUgether at TU Dresden